It was their annual Ride for the Fallen, a coast-to-coast convoy of ex-military bikers to raise money for wounded special operators, and the families of those slain in battle. The Cumberland County Sheriffs Office investigated and declared the death justifiable homicide.. They said Lavigne's harboring a fugitive felony charge could be used to kick him out of Special Forces and discharge him from the military. In the same filing, the defense notified the court of its intent to call the Green Berets widow, who would testify that she walked past the portable toilet and saw Cris with the blond girl having sex on a car, and that the female was obviously enjoying it., This was the red-haired woman whom Scanlon had briefly glimpsed during the alleged assault, a detail she had failed to relate to police. Arriving at the site in the early morning hours of Sept. 10, 2016, Scanlon and Tina were immediately creeped out by the griminess of the location. He denies that Lavigne was ever into dealing any sort of narcotics. They convened a weird meeting, Scanlon says, with her and the district attorney, Billy West, whose office declined to comment on this case or on Lavignes record of arrests. A news release from the FBI in February stated that the bodies of the men were found near a Fort Bragg training area. The main one came back and said, Because it occurred in Fayetteville, we cant help you.. Were not staying more than 20 minutes, they agreed. They were officers in the Judge Advocate Generals Corps, assigned to the Special Forces. In his statement to police later that day he said that Leshikar was acting paranoid and believed that they were being followed, and that their conversation was being listened to by a third party. The next morning, she told the guy she was dating at the time that his buddy had raped her, but he didnt believe her, she says. He transferred to Fort Bragg three years later to attend the JFK Special Warfare School, the completion of which entitles a soldier to wear a coveted green beret. He was taught how to survive behind enemy lines, resist interrogation, and escape from POW camps. There are at least two other SMUs, one dedicated to surveillance and the other to aviation, reportedly. But Scanlon was in the courtroom on the first day of trial, and Rolling Stone obtained the trial record, which includes a list of witnesses, the lawyers written motions, the judges orders, his instructions to the jury, and other documents that make it possible to reconstruct much if not nearly enough of what happened. He always had something in his hand, Locklear says. We are not granting interviews at this time., If you murder a guy who is one of your most elite soldiers in the world and no one gives a shit, it is bothersome, Ciolino said. The LaVigne and Leshikar familes had just returned from a trip to Disneyland. The founder and CEO of the nonprofit is a 39-year-old man, Cristobal Lopez Vallejo, who goes by the alias Cris Valley. First Class Mark. Investigators are seeking to create a timeline of. Vallejo didnt use any form of contraceptive. That little girl will never ever forget what she witnessed, he said. "Hard drugs and murder in JSOC: "'We have a lot of Delta Force members in our community,' says Ballard, the police detective.'Some of them are really . In Dumas' case, he had a Dec. 17 court date in. The three Delta operators who had been at the warehouse that night took the stand, as did the retired bomb technician, the two civil-affairs officers, and the dancing bartender, as well as the red-haired widow. To buttress his depiction of her as a woman on the prowl, he put up photos of her taken that night in which she was wearing a sleeveless dress with a short skirt, and texts between her and Tina joking about going out braless or commando., Isnt it true you were flirting with him? she recalls him asking. Four .45-caliber shell casings were found at the scene. Scanlon and Tina arrived at Macs shortly before 10 p.m. A number of motorcycles were parked out front. Law enforcement later told Leshikar's family that they had found a screw driver, not at the scene of his death, but outside near his car where he had been removing the battery. There are a dozen-plus local-news hits under his Anglicized name, Cris Valley, and a simple Google search turns up numerous photos and videos of him. Both Vallejo and Lavigne were exonerated. So Marky just took everything, the pride in America that I have, she continued. Now, he is telling his stories to help other veterans. Scanlon claims that Vallejo raped her that night, and says that the trauma still haunts her to this day. The record states Dumas yelled police open the door after knocking. According to the Leshikar family, the investigators said they had no real jurisdiction over Lavigne since Leshikar was killed off post. There is no screw driver here, that is enough to go DEFCON 4 on this. It is not clear how the men knew each other. Starting in 2019, victims who testify get a copy of the court-martial record, including audio, whether it was an acquittal or conviction.. Other than that, he says, I dont think youre going to get any comment from anybody around here.. One of the four Delta Force soldiers present that night was a 33-year-old from Michigan, Master Sgt. William LaVigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44. Leshikar was found by police officers and the medical examiner in a prone position with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and neck. William Lavigne III, 37, on Dec. 1-2. The rest of the court-martial is a black box to her, because she spent it sequestered in the prosecutions witness room, which she says she was not permitted to leave. soldier who had been accused of rape, and published his photo. And then hes taken out. And in North Carolina, there is no statute of limitations for rape. As a result, she says, she had to retell her ordeal to five different SVCs, some of whom were unprepared or missed meetings. Shortly after she and Tina arrived at Macs the night of the fundraiser, Scanlon recognized the Coast x Coast clubs logo from a Facebook photo of her old ROTC mentor, the ex-Delta soldier, which made her implicitly trust Vallejo and his crew, she recalls. She had brought with her a victims impact statement that she was prepared to read if Vallejo were found guilty. His truck, a black quad-cab Dodge Ram, was found some 40 miles away, in Scotland County, burned to a fucking crisp, according to his 24-year-old son. According to him, agents initiated a collateral investigation with Fayetteville police. When questioned about the apparent inconsistencies in the Army's investigation and the Cumberland County Sheriff's investigation, USASOC spokesmen Col. Tage Rainsford said: It is my understanding that the CID investigation of MSG Lavigne came to the same conclusion as the Cumberland County Sherriffs Office in that it was justifiable and no charges were filed. There have not been any arrest(s) and we are not releasing any additional details at this time, Shelly Lynch, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Charlotte, said in an email this week. Because of societal prejudices toward womens sexuality, and the potential for abuse, rape shield laws, including Military Rule of Evidence 412, generally block defense attorneys from bringing up an accusers sexual history at trial. She felt the implication was clear: Obviously youre a liar.. Scanlon derisively refers to the latter four as groupies. A Fayetteville police detective used the same language in his report on her case. On the way to the staff sergeants house, where shed spend the night, she looked at her phone and saw that Vallejo had sent her a text: How are you? On Dec. 2, 2020, Master Sgt. The charges were dropped when authorities determined he was not involved in the criminal activity, Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West told The Fayetteville Observer at the time. Her experience with the military-justice system illustrates the myriad difficulties faced by women in the overwhelmingly male armed forces who report being raped, and raises questions about the adequacy of the uniformed chain of command to protect the interests of victims of sex crimes allegedly committed by service members. Poppe says he take[s] exception to this absurd characterization. Only afterwards did I realize I didnt stand a chance.. The offense was aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a class E felony that could have landed Lavigne in prison for years, but as usual, he wasnt charged with a crime. In September 2015, he went on the Fox affiliate in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with a military dog named Gunner. For her part, Scanlon tried hard not to show any emotion in public, and accepted the jurys July 2018 decision with stoicism. Shes troubled by the memory of a night in 2012, when she woke up after having passed out drunk to find a man she knew having sex with her without her consent, she says. She vividly recalls the day that one Delta soldier, a Coast x Coast guy (neither Vallejo nor Lavigne), came in from an operation outside the wire. Cris came up with the idea for getting this warehouse, she says. Green Beret death raises questions, 1st Special Forces Command Line of Duty Memorandum. Investigators have asked anyone with information on the case to contact the FBI or Army Criminal Investigation Command. Scanlon began to cry, he wrote in his report, as she pointed out the building., Matrafailo obtained a warrant, took DNA samples from the hood of the Saab, reviewed security footage, visited Macs, and interviewed Tina, among other witnesses. Only 11 of the deaths were determined to have been from natural causes. They would have these epic parties, tailgate pool parties, where they would put a liner in the back of a truck and fill it up with water. On one occasion, they hired midget wrestlers to come out, she says. Twice she broke down in tears and the court had to call a recess, she says. We all knew him, says Roy Lynn Parker, 35. We want to hear it. Werent there plenty of people you could have called out to? Delta Force, and deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. William J. Lavigne II, 37, was found dead with another man at a training ground in Fort Bragg on Wednesday, December 2, 2020. The case is being investigated as a homicide, a spokesperson for Army Criminal Investigations Division told Connecting Vets. Why they didn't do anything is because someone shit canned this whole thing very high up. The trial record shows that Vallejos defense called eight additional witnesses. How did the Uber driver react to the distress shown by 1LT Scanlon? a juror asked Tina. Meanwhile, Lavigne's career continued unabated at USASOC. Those deleted files were the only record of the testimony the jurors chose to believe over hers. He then allegedly forcibly penetrated her vagina with his penis against her will, Detective Matrafailo wrote in his report. Are walking blood banks coming to a field hospital near you? It is something that has changed now, for exactly this reason. Once at Lavigne's residence, Leshikar's family say the friend took Leshikar's phone. William told me that my brother had a screw driver but nothing was found at the scene, Leshikar's sister told Connecting Vets. They only stayed that long because Tina was famished and there was a Crock-Pot of food on a folding table. Anything other than you saying yes or asking for it is not consent, her friend replied. And no one seems to know quite why. A Defense Department memorandum based on the Cumberland County Sheriff's report revealed additional inconsistencies. Scanlons SVC her fifth discouraged her from attending, she says. In this regard, Poppe says that she was a commissioned officer a lieutenant who got caught having sex in a compromising position with an enlisted man, Vallejo, technically her military inferior. He had done three combat rotations with Delta Force two in Afghanistan and one in Iraq but she never guessed that he was a trained killer, in her words. One woman who was much better acquainted with both men, and the whole Coast x Coast crew, is an ex-soldier whom Ill call Jane for the sake of anonymity. He didnt let me get past him. First Class Mark Leshikar, two years prior. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time According to Lavigne's statement to police, Leshikar began acting irrationally on the car ride back to Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was a broken operator, a worn-out military part, destroyed by PTSD and substance abuse. He was a resident of Pinehurst at the time of his death. There were three Delta Force soldiers, plus a retired bomb technician, in addition to Vallejo who went back to the warehouse that night, all of whom were Coast x Coast members. While Leshikar's daughter has been able to grow and thrive despite a traumatic event, the rest of the family feels they have been cheated by the Army and the Sheriff's Office out of ever seeing justice served, especially after Lavigne's apparent homicide. Lavigne and Vallejo were on an altogether different level, one rarely touched by scandal. He literally picked me up off the ground, and my shoes fell off., He set her on the flaking hood of a defunct Saab convertible that was sunk in tall weeds. We drank so much, she says. As soon as they said not guilty, my people just kind of quickly escorted me out.. But he was in JAG for 20 years and has represented such high-profile military clients as Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, and is unable to recall another time when a JSOC operator was arrested for a violent felony against a fellow soldier on U.S. soil, as was the case for both Lavigne and Vallejo. But Scanlons unit, despite its distinguished pedigree going back to World War I, is a division of the conventional Army, which is kept separate from top-secret JSOC by high walls, both literal and figurative. I held really, really tightly to my [family members] hands and stared straight ahead, she says. Master Sgt. William Lavigne II, 37, pictured above, was found in Fort Bragg on December 2. At the time, he was so depressed, anxious, guilt-stricken, and strung out on drugs that its a wonder he was able to put on his full-dress uniform that morning. At the time he met Scanlon, who was nearly 10 years his junior, Vallejo was a sergeant first class.
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